The present invention relates to a new tape cassette, and particularly to a technique suitable for a miniaturized tape cassette, which allows formation of a positioning hole for positioning the tape cassette to a tape drive apparatus and an ID hole for providing various kinds of information.
Tape cassettes are configured such that two reels around which a magnetic tape is wound are rotatably contained in a cassette shell generally composed of a lower shell and an upper shell.
The lower shell of the cassette shell has two positioning holes for positioning the tape cassette to a tape drive apparatus when the tape cassette is loaded in the tape drive apparatus, and also has an ID hole for detecting various kinds of information on the tape cassette.
On the other hand, a tape drive apparatus is provided with two positioning pins, which are inserted in the two positioning holes of the tape cassette, to perform the positioning of the tape cassette to the tape drive apparatus. The tape drive apparatus is also provided with a detecting means such as a detecting switch at a position corresponding to that of the ID hole of the tape cassette. It is detected, by turn-on/turn-off of the detecting switch, whether or not the ID hole is opened, to thereby detect various kinds of information on the tape cassette.
In recent years, however, the following problem associated with the positioning holes and ID hole has occurred: namely, although the amount of information necessary for a tape cassette tends to be increased depending on multiplicity of recording methods and recording densities, spaces required for forming the positioning holes and ID hole in the cassette shell have become narrower along with the tendency toward miniaturization of the tape cassette.
An object of the present invention is to provide a tape cassette which is capable of surely providing an ID hole in the tape cassette, even if the tape cassette is miniaturized.
To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a tape cassette including a cassette shell which has, in the back surface, two positioning holes wherein one of the two positioning holes is formed into a circular shape and the other is formed into a long-hole shape, the positioning hole formed into the long-hole shape is divided into two parts in the major direction of the long-hole, and about half of the long-hole shape is used as a positioning hole and about remaining half thereof is used as an information detecting (ID) hole for providing various kinds of information and a removable block piece is provided on an opening portion of the ID hole.
With this configuration, one of the positioning holes and the ID hole are provided in the common long-hole. Accordingly, as compared with the related art structure in which the ID hole is provided separately from a positioning hole, the structure of the present invention is advantageous in that it is not required to ensure an additional space specialized for the ID hole separately from a space for the positioning hole. As a result, it is possible to make effective use of an inner space of the cassette shell and hence to contribute to miniaturization of the tape cassette.
In this tape cassette, preferably, a connection piece is provided for connecting an edge portion, on the positioning hole side, of the block piece to a bottom plate of the positioning hole.
With this configuration, even if a member near the block piece, such as a positioning pin, is brought into contact with the block piece in a state in which the ID hole is closed, the block piece can be prevented from being easily cutout by contact therewith. That is to say, since the provision of the connection piece allows only intentional cutout of the block piece, it is possible to prevent erroneous recognition of the ID hole.